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Physics Department Colloquium
The present and future of solar neutrinos with Borexino
Date: Friday, March 27th
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
Speaker: Andrea Pocar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Abstract: Borexino is a large, low-energy neutrino experiment that has been running since 2007 at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy. It is the only running detector potentially sensitive to the entire solar neutrino spectrum. It has so far made the first measurement of the Berillium-7 neutrinos, now known with 5% precision, measured the Boron-8 neutrinos with lower energy threshold than previous experiments, and observed pep neutrinos for the first time. More recently, Borexino made the first direct detection of pp neutrinos. These are the most abundant solar neutrinos, yet they have proven very hard to detect due to their low energy and the presence of the Carbon-14 background in organic scintillator. These results will be described in detail, in the context of neutrino and solar physics. The Borexino program for the coming years will also be presented, with particular focus on the hunt for CNO solar neutrinos.
Host: Justin Vandenbroucke
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